Activist Zuhdi Jasser Doesn't Believe al-Maliki Supports Christians

Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, spoke out against the attacks by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) against Christians in Ninevah province, but American Muslim activist Zuhdi Jasser says he doesn't believe al-Maliki supports Christians.

"I'm sorry if I don't believe a lot of what he says," Jasser told John Bachman and J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV on Thursday.

"He's become a client state of Iran, which is probably one of the most offensive states in the world for Christians to live," he said.

"ISIS is a lot more radicalized against Christians than the Malaki government is, but the Malaki government has not overseen a necessarily hospitable place for churches and Christians to exist," says the founder and president of The American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

"The number of Christians has decreased [in Iraq] . . . since the ruthless dictator Saddam Hussein left," he added.

Iraq "has been listed on our commission's list of countries of particular concern for a number of years."

The targeting against Christians by ISIS is more extreme, he said.

"ISIS came out of Syria . . . and they are imposing a radicalized version of Sharia law, which they will enact a genocide by doctrine and by Sharia," Jasser added. "And this is not just unique to Iraq."

The Arizona physician explained that this is "a teaching moment" for the world because it is "not a coincidence that we see churches burned in Pakistan, we see Boko Haram taking girls in Nigeria trying to convert them to [Islam], we see the Sudanese case" of Meriam Ibrahim, who was sentenced to death for refusing to deny her Christian faith. The Sudanese court lifted her sentence in June.

"All of these are symptoms of a deeper problem, which is the incompatibility of the Islamic State and Sharia law with freedom and liberty and the need for Muslims to understand that these symptoms are part of a deeper disease," Jasser said.

"The gateway drug to this radicalism is political Islam and the supremacism of Islam."